Summary
We're expanding the number of skills/spells/powers/etc. ('abilities') which care about the toughness of the target as far as improvement. Starting with the next reboot and continuing to be phased in this week as time permits, we'll be switching a lot of ability improvement over so that:

- Using these abilities against higher-level opponents will have an increased chance of improving them.
- Using them on opponents of your own level will be the same as it was.
- Using them on opponents of lower level will be less effective. The chance of improvement doesn't go to zero, but bashing kobolds to death as a level 15 warrior is not practical for becoming a master of bash.

Scope/Goals:
These sorts of changes have been in for subsets of abilities (defenses, etc.) for a while, and we hope that this expansion (along with the ability points gained upon leveling) will make it a lot easier for people to raise their abilities as they level and explore, and de-emphasize any need people feel to spend lots of time doing repetitive spam-esque tasks.

Most importantly, we want the system to reward challenge and clever tactics, not 'cheap tricks'- the same philosophy we apply to earning XP, landing PKs, etc.

Some Exceptions:
- These changes do not effect PC-vs-PC combat- level plays a smaller role there (relative to PC/NPC combat).
- The changes will also not be very noticeable in the level 1-10 range- the level of difficulty there is pretty low, and the system is meant to reward challenge more accurately.
- Non-hostile skills (Detect Hidden, Herbs, etc.) are untouched- the level of the person they are being used on doesn't really matter as far as challenge.
- Invoker spells will continue to use the code they have been using because of their more stringent requirements.

Feedback and discussion should go to Gameplay.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com